March 20, 2020 VIA EMAIL TO [email protected] … · 3/20/2020  · National Lawyers Guild, Georgia State Chapter Brian Spears, Esq. R. Gary Spencer, Esq. Healthcare Professionals

March 20, 2020

VIA EMAIL TO [email protected] Atlanta Police Department Attn. Chief Erika Shields 226 Peachtree Street SW Atlanta, Georgia 30303

Re: Non-Essential Arrests Endangering Public Safety; APD COVID-19 Response

Chief Shields:

We the undersigned attorneys, health care professionals, scholars, and community-based organizations, ask that you immediately instruct your officers to cease endangering the larger community and furthering the potential spread of the COVID-19 virus.

Currently, every other community stakeholder is doing their part to contain this pandemic. Unfortunately, it appears that Atlanta Police Department (APD) is acting in contravention to these efforts by continuing to make non-essential arrests and exposing citizens and officers alike to multiple points of contact, every one of which is a potential point of transmission.

Attached is the booking sheet for the Atlanta City Detention Center for the 24-hour period of March 18th. Of these 66 bookings, four (4) are DUIs. Depending on the circumstances, some of these DUI arrests may be deemed essential. However, what is clear is that every other arrest was non-essential. This booking sheet reveals that in the midst of a pandemic, APD is utilizing its significant resources to arrest people for things such as Urban Camping, Drinking in Public, and Possession of Marijuana - charges which you have publicly declared to be deprioritized even in non-crisis times.

For every arrest, there are 20 -70 points of contact between the person being arrested and other people, including city personnel. These include but are not limited to:

• The officer making the arrest and their partner;• Booking and intake officers;• Jail security and maintenance personnel;• Municipal Court personnel, prosecutors and public defenders that must participate in the adjudication

process; and• Every other person in the “holding cell” who has been non-essentially arrested.

As you know, the city jail is not disinfected after every new person passes through. Therefore, each person leaving the facility (officers, staff and arrestees) takes these multiple points of exposure home with them. And even if an individual is released after booking instead of detained, many points of exposure have already occurred.

This booking sheet only includes the individuals arrested in a 24-hour period, so it does not account for those individuals already detained in ACDC. It also does not include APD arrestees who were booked in the Fulton County jail. We assume, however, that many of those bookings were also made pursuant to misdemeanor, non-essential arrests. As the Fulton County Jail is currently overpopulated, staff face the additional challenge of reducing their population sufficient to house in one place those individuals who test positive for COVID-19. Ending non-essential arrests will make this possible.

Your strong and unambiguous leadership is absolutely essential at this moment. As the Chief of Police, it is critical to the public health and safety of the community that you give a written command to your officers to stop all non-essential arrests immediately. We strongly urge you to impose penalties on officers who continue to endanger the public’s safety by making non-essential arrests. They should instead be encouraged/directed to use many alternatives at their disposal including de-escalation, issuance of citation, and diversion where opportune. You can redefine what successful policing is and send the message that officers must play an active and leading role in combatting this pandemic.

Sincerely,

Legal Organizations & Attorneys

Southern Center for Human Rights Gideon’s Promise Innovation Law Lab Legal Action Center The Justice Collaborative National Lawyers Guild, Georgia State Chapter Brian Spears, Esq. R. Gary Spencer, Esq.

Healthcare Professionals & Scholars

Peter Ash M.D., Professor and Director Psychiatry and Law Service, Emory University School of Medicine Brendan Ozawa-de Silva, Ph.D., Center for Contemplative Science and Compassion-Based Ethics Emory University Victoria Roberts M.Ed., LPC, Court Liaison Director, Competency Restoration Program, Emory University School of Medicine Jennifer C. Sarrett, PhD, Center for the Study of Human Health, Emory University Donna Troka, PhD, Center for Faculty Development and Excellence, Emory University Sarah Y. Vinson, MD, Board Certified Adult Forensic Psychiatrist Teena Wilhelm, PhD, Department of Political Science, University of Georgia

Community Organizations & Advocates

Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Atlanta Black Alliance for Just Immigration Black Futurists Group Georgia Coalition Against Domestic Violence Georgia Detention Watch Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights LaGender, Inc. Project South Southerners on New Ground Solutions Not Punishment Collaborative Southern Crossroads Organizing Project Trans(forming) Women on the Rise Women Watch Afrika, Inc.

cc: Hon. Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms ([email protected]) Hon. Felicia Moore ([email protected]) Interim Chief Vance Williams ([email protected])